Ssd Vs 7200 Rpm in Vaio Z590

i have found many contradicting comparisons between the SSD drive and the 7200 RPM ones. Can anybody clearly mention the difference in terms of:
- Boot Up
- Application Launch
- File Transfer
- General performance
- Battery consumption
- Noise
- Heat
- Durability

Thnx

 

A good SLC SSD (like the Samsung SATA II) will outperform a 7200rpm HDD in all of the above areas.

Some SSDs (not the Samsung SATAII) have shown to worsen battery life.

Of some SSDs, especially MLC, reliability is unsure.

Some SSDs, especially MLC SSDs like the OCZ Core suffer from slow random writes. This can influence performance negatively.

Links:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3067&p=4
http://blog.laptopmag.com/in-depth-with-the-ocz-core-series-low-cost-ssd

My conclusion:
-A good MLC SSD is superior in performance but very expensive per GB.
-A good 320GB/7200rpm drive is not as fast as SSD but fast enough for many and much cheaper per GB.
-A good 320GB/5400rpm drive like the WD3200BEVT can give a 7200rpm a real good run for the money.
-OCZ Core is a bit of a gamble.

 

Yeah, I once installed an SSD that was actually slower than a 4200rpm HDD!

 

To be specific i am comparing the 128 GB SSD and the 200 GB 7200 RPM in the vaio Z590 CTO.

 

As far as I know the Sony uses 2 Samsung SATA II SSDs in RAID. It will be extremely fast with very little heat and it will be silent. It will probably use more battery power though.

Edit: I've updated the thread title, otherwise this thread would belong in the upgrades forum.

Thinking about it more.. isn't it peculiar that Sony only offers a double SSD in RAID and no single SSD option? Maybe they are having their own doubts about reliability.

 

I believe the time will show...and I do think it's not reasonable to buy SSD from Sony at this time. For now I'm more interested if it's better choice to get 320 GB at 5400 rpm or 200 GB at 7200 rpm...because as Phill already said before, some high capacity 5400 HDDs can even outperform the 7200 ones....time will show which brands Sony used in the new series and what will be the better choice...

 

It is confirmed in a Japanese review that Sony use SLC SSD on Z, creating the limitation to 64GB (or 128GB in RAID 0). I don't know if there are any other suppliers that produce SLC 64GB SSD, though.

 

Look at the facts of the review done here http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2008/0730/hotrev369.htm

The speed is awesome of the RAIDed SSDs esp. since it's two SLC-based.

I'd go SSD if it was me and I wanted the performance, but since it's two drives, you'll have a bit more battery drain.

SSD has been in my past two notebooks and I don't miss traditional HDDs.

 

Sony does offer a single 64GB SSD option in Japan.

 

Also check out the comparison results here on SSD vs. HDD of the Z90 vs. the Z70
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/0807/24/news037_2.html

This particular one answers all of your questions.

 

Nah, don't think so. They're using RAID 0 (striping), which means that if one drive fails, all data is lost. So the RAID is just for speed and not security of data. This implies they're more confident in the reliability of the SSDs.

 

Yes that's true.

Still strange though that they're not offering single SSD option in US.

 

Maybe not strange for Sony though, eh? The different names for different regions, various configuration options (or lack of), etc, etc, are all apparently designed to confuse us into submission!

 

Can someone who speaks japanese post a summary of the two links on page 1? I used google translate to translate the pages and was able to glean quite a bit of information, but am still left with the feeling that I'm missing something.

Specifically, if it is possible it would be good to take the original posters list of questions and answer each with a translated portion of those sites.

 

I find the question to be a little bit narrow, because Im not sure thats the answer you truly seek.

For me, the Z was a torn decision purchase....not about buying the Z, but which configuration,,,and I lost some sleep over it too.

SSD is fast...and the raid they are using is blindingly fast. But its only 128gb and no blue ray....why no blue ray? - Well blue ray constantly buffers and essentially will thrape an ssd, dramatically shortening its life, whereas HD s far more suited to it. People buying modded blueray / ssd configs beware of this.

So although the SSD is fast, its hardcore - meaning no blueray ( and its such a good screen to take advantage of blueray) coupled with not much space - 128gb.......its not much space in anyones book.

200gb at 7400rpm...well the speed is good...but only 200gb. So I went for 320gb 5400rpm - its a toshiba and doesnt rank so well in the whos who of HDs according to Toms hardware. So Im looking to change to a WD Scorpio Black 320gb 7200rpm which kicks some....bringing it closer to the performance of the ssd config...but with blueray.

The Japan article goes through this learning in much the same way as I have - and reccomends the 200gb 7200rpm and blueray config...but laments that its only 200gb....hence moving to the 320gb 7200rpm makes more sense.

they convey that the 7200rpm drive gives them a similar sense of excitement of speed that the ssd gave them, but with a more fully funtional setup.

 

Well, having owned the Z590UAB, I can tell you it was the fastest laptop I have ever used. My Japanese Z90 with the 128GB RAID is on its way to me ... so we'll see.

The dual SSD didn't seem to be a big battery drain on the 590UAB.

 

What about using the Seagate ST9320421AS 320gb 7200 which speed test show to be better than Hitachi's new 320gb 7200rpm. Max throughput is 89mbs. That is what I put in my new VGN-SZ691N/X.

 

I have the Samsung SLC 64GB SSD in my Z590. I ordered my Z590 with the 320GB 5400 Toshiba. I miss the space but the beneifts of the SSD are great. I get 5.5 hours in stamina with DVD and wireless off. Around 4 hours with WWAN (Sprint) on. (no extended battery).

The boot times are not that great - 70 secs from power on to desktop (through FP reader) but I have True Image, Itunes,Office 2007, AutoCad 2008,Quicktime, antivirus, Skype, Jave, Adobe Prof, Visio, Logitech bluetooth, MS 8000 mouse, etc. I feel that I have a lot of programs. After booting with a clean install (thanks to MegaMan X -IsamuX-Tj, I use 98 processes. I did not go through the NBR Vista tweaks. I really have zero complaints, only money!

The benefit of no moving parts (banging it around on my knees), reliability, coolness, and quick loading of programs are the main benefits. I haven't had too much lag but it does occur when saving some files. I didn't notice and lag when installing my programs.

I do not feel that I gained battery life but I enjoy it when loading programs and moving about with no noise and moving parts. I wish they were cheaper..

I felt that the Raid (dual 64GB SSDs were way too much $$). I come from an IT background where you have the valuable data on fast reliable HDs and you store the archive and old data on cheaper medium (external HDs). I trimmed all of my data to use 10GB and have 20GB free.

Formatting the 64GB will give you 59.63GB. I estimate that I used 30GB from all of my programs.

After I setup my drive, I plan to back it up and remove TrueImage to get faster boot times.

Here are two HD tunes, one in stamina and one in speed.

Oh, sorry - back to the topic - I would go with SSD over 7200. Now I can look forward to even faster HDs and cheaper SSDs.

 

Attachments.

 

98 processes after a clean install? wow. Just my 2 cents: your system would feel a lot faster if you could limit that. It's suprises me to see people going through the effort of performing a clean install and then installing all of sony's crappy (in my opinion) utilities.

The Samsung SATA SSD is an excellent choice though.

 

I know that's high but it really doesn't bother me. I guess the SSD helps out i that area. I do have a lot of applications and I use most of the Sony utilities. I didn't start to tweak my system - I have all startups and applications loaded, including all of Sony's. I guess my clean install is just without the free trials and "other" applications.

I tried 64bit Vista - it loaded 30 secs with 40 processes. In fact when I did my 32 bit clean, I noticed that the exact same drivers were not present in both the 32 bit and 64bit in the device manager.

 

hope you don't mind telling me how much a SSD like your is going for?

 

$790
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147054

Intel X-25M 80GB shoud be out within a few weeks, and is a bit faster and cheaper.
http://www.google.com/products?q=Intel+X25-M&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd

Samsung vs. Intel SSD Benchmarks
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-x25-m.aspx?page=4

 

Actually I ordered in on July 29th for 790 but Newegg reduced their price and credited me the $50.00 with price reduction. I got it for 740. Newegg has raised their price since then.

NewEgg is a pleasure to deal with...

 

Portableone are offering the Z series with Blu-ray and a 250GB OCZ V2 SSD drive for $3999. Considering the first gen OCZ have a bad rep, has anyone heard if these V2 drives are much improved? Would they be far behind the Samsung and Intel drives?

 

They are not much improved and suffer from the same problem. The cause is the JMicron controller inside. What it comes down is that the random write performance is poor. If you want to know the details: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=7

I can't recommend this OCZ Core to anyone.

 

Be aware that Blueray is no good for SSD drives due to its constant buffering on read ad write - your ssd life will be dramatically shortened by it. Whereas HD is far more suited to it. Hence my reason to go 7200rpm - best of both worlds...good speed and functionality. I encourage anyone wh hasnt seen the screen to check it out....and then play a blue ray on it - truly something to see

 

i) Sony deliver the SSD discs in a stripe config. Did they provide a utility to change the stripe volume to a mirror config?

ii) Does Linux, such as Ubuntu, recognise the RAID system?

 

I am using the Samsung SLC 64GB SataII in my Z. It is great! no lag, never ran out of battery -longest used time is 4hrs with WWAN with 20% remaining.

Only con was the cost - $740. I also use the Transcend 32GB express card reader which is great for my work as it comes with a USB adapter for my work machine.

 

Does anyone know whether the Vaio type-Z uses MLC or SLC SSD drives?

Ignore this question as I cannot imagine it using an SLC because it would be far too expensive (about 2,500 US...) so I think the Vaio has MLC inside.